Tips on coming to see apartments before moving?

I used to live in Finland (I moved from abroad, moved back since) and the way I got my first apartment was that I found it on Facebook, talked to the renter about scheduling a viewing - I flew to visit Finland and view the apartment, and the flight wasn't "immediate" as is done many times with private owners - I remember it was planned at least 1 month in advance.

I think also discussed a lot of the details in advance with the renter.

That particular one was also a sublease of a room of a student so the person didn't have pressure to rent the place _right away_ - not until the end of the start of the semester, when he would have been paying for it.

I might have been with that, and now I want to go back. So any tips on how to do it again? I ideally would like to rent long-term while spending as little time in Helsinki as possible while planning as far in advance as possible, as it'd let me save costs on plane tickets and where I'd be staying. Last time I went there for a week. I understand if it might be hard to optimize this.

Might be important: I don't have a resident permit, however I used to work and stay legally in Finland thanks to specific immigration laws - I was about to recieve my permit but got fired when the pandemic hit and the country closed down, so due to uncertanity I left it and didn't get the permit. Mentioning this in case you think it might be important for talking with rental companies or private owners.

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